Seriously, is there anything better than the Pet Shop Boys?

pre-1996 PSBs: probably not
post-1996 PSBs: plenty

I love the PSBs. I actually am a huge fan of "One and One Make Five", love the way the "people must be jumping" works as both Todd Terry style cheesey chorus line and actually part of the song too.

(PS "Domino Dancing" is fucking awful and you are all worse people for supporting it ok thx XOXOXOXO MWAH)

I don't really know where to start discussing the PSB, so many good songs, I like about 5 times more PSB songs than any other act.

Bobby O apparently wrote W.E.G. and then the PSBs 'stole' it.

Depeche Mode = music for teenagers
PSB = music for adults

As far as I understand, Bobby O went back and did another mix in the early 90s. So sez my friend anyway.

B-b-b-but Depeche Mode is all pop, surely, no?

I've really come round to DM's singles though, at least up until they went rock, a ridiculosity too far.

Depeche Mode, on the other hand (whom I love, I should point out), take VERY CAREFUL AND STUDIED MEASURES to appear conventionally cool at virtually every turn.

That may not have been the rule circa this photo....

http://est.hu/imgup/regi/est/konnyu/interju/2003-01/a_depeche_mode-tol_a_yazoo-n_at_az_erasure-ig_3.jpg

I think that, much like I don't give a flying fuck what music Stormy likes, he doesn't give a flying fuck what music I like.

I still can't get my head around Depeche Mode as more pop than PSB, Depeche Mode are alot darker and more serious, to me, I think that's why they've always had a more public level of credibility.

I mean, outside of this thread, in the real world, there are so many people who think the PSBs are just an embarassing blip from the 80s and early 90s? I don't mean total ignorami either, isn't that kind of a recieved wisdom among alot of music fans?

in the real world, there are so many people who think the PSBs are just an embarassing blip from the 80s and early 90s?

Yeah, and you absolutely NEVER EVER hear their songs on the radio (except for "West End Girls" when my local radio station does those "80s Flashback Weekend"s). How many times did the entirety of U.S. radio play "Can You Forgive Her"? TWO?

Dan OTM about their post-Introspective American profile.

I disagree -- for instance, I remember "Go West" getting a lot of video play. But after "Very", they disappeared into a pit, absolutely.

Also, this DM/PSB teenagers/adults things is straying into r*ckism (sorry) -- obviously there's no a priori reason why one should find greater artistic value in "adult" themes as opposed to "teenaged" themes. (I'm not sure that anybody is arguing that, but I think the implications are there in certain posts).

There's nothing wrong with teenaged themes - the time-honored themes of having fun, sex, drinking, breaking the rules, rebelling, etc are the staples of much of the rock canon. However, Depeche Mode's themes are more the themes of an adolescent who prematurely wants to be old - who thinks they understand more than they do - who's just read Nietzsche for the first time and thinks they have figured something out that the rest of the world hasn't - who takes themselves way too seriously and resents the world for not playing along. And Depeche Mode has absolutely zero ironic distance between themselves and this adolescent viewpoint and no discernable sense of humor - which makes their stuff kind of hard for an adult to swallow with a straight face.

::nods:: Amen! It always horrified me when DM, PSB, New Order were spoken of in the same breath.

Yes, yes, but grouping and context played such a role, though. (Maybe this is mentioned upthread.) I always noted that in terms of general marketing and 'audience' as perceived the four key figures in 80s alt Anglophilia in a KROQ etc. sense were Depeche, New Order, the Cure and the Smiths, each of which had very different goals, aesthetics and approaches. (PSB due to the immediate pop success were similar yet removed, but could still easily be lumped in.)

YET ANOTHER REASON TO HATE THAT FUCKING SONG.

"Domino Dancing": The song that drove PSB off the American Top 40. THANKS A TON GUYS.

This doesn't really apply outside of "Black Celebration"-era DM. Also, lyrics have never been DM's strongest asset, and abviously Martin Gore's lyrics can't measure up to Neil Tennant's. Fortunately, there are lots of other things to love about DM.